Six elements of a successful novel: Part two: setting and conflict

Number 2 in a three-part series on the six elements of a successful novel. In this post, we tackle setting and conflict. Read part one Plot and Themes in a Novel.

Setting in a novel

Essentially, the setting builds the scene for the events in the novel. It’s a technique used by authors to build tension and create conflict in their books.

In the opening paragraphs of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, the author places the reader right in the head of one of the lead characters:

When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it, to begin with. The very first time I saw her, it was the back of the head I saw, and there was something lovely about it, the angles of it. Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or a riverbed fossil. She had what the Victorians would call finely shaped head. You could imagine the skull quite easily.

I’d know her head anywhere.

And just like that, the reader is plunged into the story. They are intrigued about this man’s description of the shape of his wife’s head.

Why did he mention her skull, and what’s his fascination with her head?

The next paragraph then gives strong hints that his fascination with the inner workings of his wife’s brain has more of an obsessive feel about it:

And what’s inside it. I think of that too: her mind. Her brain, all those coils, and her thoughts shuttling through those coils like fast, frantic centipedes. Like a child, I picture opening her skull, unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin down her thoughts. What are you thinking, Amy? The question I’ve asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?

These opening paragraphs set the scene for Flynn’s thriller.

As for the reader, their interest is piqued: they want to know more about this man and his wife’s brain; why does he want to dissect it so much?

Techniques to using setting in your novel

1. Mood

One of the best ways to use setting in your novel is by using mood. Flynn does this with somewhat violent and evocative imagery:

Like a child, I picture opening her skull, unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin down her thoughts.

The description is vivid, with a dark, sombre feel about it. This is not Flynn trying to elicit some quick, cheap emotions from the reader. Rather, it’s a semiotic symbolism that sets the scene for key events, and ultimately, conflict between the man and his wife, later in the book.

Thinking about your novel. How can you use moods to create setting and advance your novel’s plot?

2. Objects

You can use inanimate objects such as furniture, as setting in your novel. For example, you could open with a scene where your character displays an unusual hatred for a chair in their home, yet seems unable or want to get rid of it. At the same time, they work in a furniture store.

How do they manage their complex relationship at work and in their home with that most innocuous of home items: a chair?

3. The weather and geographical locations

These are popular choices for settings in novels. In Wuthering Heights, the equally bleak and beautiful Yorkshire Moors provided the perfect setting for one of the greatest and most tragic love stories ever told: that of Catherine and Heathcliff.

4. Internal settings

When we think of setting, we usually think of external factors. However, it could also relate to scenes or interactions between your characters, which in turn provides the context for conflict.

In this scene, taken from my novel, Eyo, the two characters are sex workers discussing Eyo, one of the teenage girls in the brothel.

This interaction between the two character provides the setting and trigger for the conflict that unfolds in the next couple of scenes.

… they both laughed for a few moments. Then Stella spoke.

“There’s something else.”

Bola groaned.

“It’s Eyo.” Stella’s eyes settled on Bola.

“What about Eyo?” Bola’s voice had become studiously attached.

“You’re getting too attached to that girl. It’s not healthy.”

“Whatever.”

A few scenes later…

“Look at you looking like a blushing bride. If I didn’t know better, I would think that you were one indeed,” Stella teased her friend.

Bola laughed. “Married life is good. Mark is okay,” she said. Her eyes clouded briefly. “Sometimes I think that I’m the most evil person on earth. There are times he touches me and I’m filled with loathing for myself, and for him. And then, at other times, I feel quite tender towards him…”

“The way a dog owner feels towards his dog, ” Stella finished, reaching out behind for the ice cream in her freezer.

“No, wait. How about we get Nkem and Eyo in here? I’m sure they would like some,” Bola said.

“Bola, I’m not going to do this with you again. Your life here is over.”

“I don’t know what prompted the speech. I’m just asking if the girls could have ice cream with us. Which reminds me: I need to talk to you about Eyo.”

“I thought you would. She’s gone.”

“Gone where?” Bola looked around as if expecting Eyo to emerge from somewhere.

“She’s no longer here.”

A sickening comprehension dawned on Bola. “You didn’t…” she said, her voice faint.

“She’s no longer with us. That’s all you need to know.” Stella’s voice was firm.

“You knew I was coming for her.”

“I suspected you might try something like that, yes.”

“Why, Stella? You knew I was coming for her and yet you did this.”

“She had to be taught a lesson. She would’ve found a way to destroy everything I’ve worked for.”

“Where is she?” Bola’s voice was louder this time.

Why is setting important?

Setting is important, because a lot of the time, it provides context in a novel. To a certain extent, it also helps moves your novel forward. So much of what happens in a scene is dependent on what happens in the previous scene:

Yasmin was woken by the alarm bell. Sighing, she reached for it and turned it off before jumping into the shower.

In the shower, she couldn’t help but think how great her life was. When she finished, she got ready for work, but not before checking in on her neighbour, a wonderful, eccentric lady with a twinkle in her eye.

This is not a novel. This is Snoresville. People did not buy your novel (that is, part with their hard-earned cash), so that they could be sent to Snoresville. They want to have an adventure. They want to turn the pages in a frenzy to find out what happens next in your book.

As an author, your job is to make it darn near impossible for your readers to think of anything else other than finishing your book once they start reading. So much so that they’ll think nothing of sitting on a street pavement to help them do this.

The alarm clock went flying across the room and straight into the wall. As its shards crumbled to the floor, there was a thump on the other side of the wall.

Yasmin laughed to herself and turned over in her bed. She still had another 20 minutes of sleeping to do.

With any luck, the shock of the alarm clock thundering against the wall would trigger a stroke in her elderly neighbour. He would die and then she could move in and have his apartment.

But he probably wouldn’t die. He was determined that way. In any case, Yasmin knew that, in all probability, she herself would die before the old goat.

But that didn’t stop her from trying to kill him and take his apartment.

Who is Yasmin, and why does she want her neighbour to die with her? Why do they hate each other so much?

These are the things that the reader wants to know.

Compare the previous excerpt:

Yasmin was woken by the alarm bell. Sighing, she reached for it and turned it off before jumping into the shower.

In the shower, she couldn’t help but think how great her life was. When she finished, she got ready for work, but not before checking in on her neighbour, a wonderful, eccentric lady with a twinkle in her eye.

… with this one:

The alarm clock went flying across the room and straight into the wall. As its shards crumbled to the floor, there was a thump on the other side of the wall.

Yasmin laughed to herself and turned over in her bed. She still had another 20 minutes of sleeping to do.

With any luck, the shock of the alarm clock thundering against the wall would trigger a stroke in her elderly neighbour. He would die and then she could move in and have his apartment.

But he probably wouldn’t die. He was determined that way. And in any case, Yasmin knew that, in all probability, she would die before the old goat.

But that didn’t stop her from trying to kill him and take his apartment.

Which would you rather read?

This is just a short exercise to show you the importance of conflict in a novel. It is what builds tension and moves a novel forward.

Conflict and tension in real life v in novels

Everyone has faced conflict at in their lives: in school, with family, at work…

It is a part and parcel of the human experience. The reality is that while most people wish for a ‘peaceful life, free from drama’, it’s not what they want from the characters in a novel.

They buy novels, because they want to escape from their real lives, and a book about a character ‘who just wants to live a drama-free life’ just isn’t going to cut it.

Why do you think soap operas are so popular? It’s because they’re dramatic and a form of escapism for the billions of people who watch them. I dare you to watch and then pretend after that you haven’t learned a few conflict and setting techniques that you could apply to your novel.

In the next and final post in the series: characterisation and point of view.